Protect and Survive - Video Scaries

[@AdamMartyn]

*PLEASE NOTE* Due to a copyright claim, I've had to remove approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds of footage from this video This may result in a cut between clips being a little jumpy, due to KZbin's basic editing software, but I hope the video still remains enjoyable. Every single Protect and Survive video can be found either on KZbin or at other sites

[@infinitemultipliers]

ok

[@ASSAsebber]

2 copyright claims? Biased!

[@nigelwatson1443]

Remove all your crap

[@nigelwatson1443]

And stop using Who wants to millionaire music. You, Dick, can't use it!

[@nigelwatson1443]

Remove these your videos and your stupid comments. Adam Martin and stop using BBC indents. You have No Copyright, Idiot.

[@landscapedetective4064]

I remember there was a parody Protect and Survive that came out sometime in the early 80s. I had a copy of the booklet, but it's long since disappeared. I recall reading advice about how to deal with hysterical relatives: 'A sharp blow to the back of the neck stops blubbering instantly.' Great stuff!

[@adammclaughlin845]

So if they survived the bombing, and the fallout, and potentially a nuclear winter (if these are really a thing), they die by karate chop. Well, at least it would be quick!

[@mubd1234sAussieMediaArchive]

The fallout warning is the craziest thing. The three whistles or gongs would have been sounded by some poor bastard running down the street whistling or gonging (I am NOT joking) while the highly poisonous radioactive dust settles on the ground around them.

[@eddiereptile1049]

That would probably be me. :)

[@danzigball9074]

they would be in a tower or smth so they maybe safe

[@introvertgoblin]

That’s interesting to know. I thought they were over the radio instead of proper noise.

[@iitzfizz]

Time - Distance - Shielding

[@shonacourt9750]

I always wondered what poor sod would get that job😂😂😱

[@warprecautions631]

24:50 The films were meant to be shown on Tv 3 days before a expected nuclear attack. People were expected to carry out all these tasks during their last few days.

[@Edgel-in6bs]

Indeed, albeit it's hard to understand a scenario where MAD was a slow build up and possibility. However angry or desperate politicians were, ending the world was never an option.

[@warprecautions631]

@@Edgel-in6bs The 72 hour warning time was based on estimates by NATO that war with the Warsaw Pact would be a short conventional conflict for a couple days, that would either result in both sides backing down or a nuclear exchange.

[@notjebbutstillakerbal]

Plus, these instructions were only intended to increase survival chances, not guarantee it.

[@LucasOliveira-tt2ll]

In 1982 BBC made a feature on Q.E.D. called "A guide to armageddon" in which describes almost all those measures to be taken and shows a coupe in their fallout shelter drinking tea while a nuke wipes out their home killing them instantly, thus making the shelter quite useless. After that one the aunt beeb produced Threads, that is still the scariest non-scary movie ever made

[@johnathanrush4666]

Threads is Nightmare Fuel

[@LucasOliveira-tt2ll]

@@johnathanrush4666 indeed, never had the guts to watch it yet. The Day After still giver me nightmares

[@faithluv1140]

Threads has me in a nuclear choke hold. Tht movie was terrifying. N it just wouldn’t end…. it just kept getting worse… even when it got better, it just got worse 😫 I sat quietly for like 30 mins… we can never let this happen, it’s the end. Full stop. It’s dinosaur level end . Threads is much worse than the day after. ABC made them cut almost an hour from tht movie cuz it was too dark for ad revenue….. threads clearly didn’t GAF. Tht movie needs to be shown every year wizard of oz or a Christmas story. We need to see what nuclear war is. We need our leaders to see…. No one will survive. Not one person will be able to rebuild society after something like this. We will starve, die of cancers, rampant disease, crime, corruption. The amount of dead bodies in the street, no where to properly dispose of corpses…. Oceans of contaminated water… ugh. I don’t wanna survive the blast to be honest. I would just rather go with the flow 😮

[@LucasOliveira-tt2ll]

@@faithluv1140 is been already 10 years that Threads has come to my knowledge and I still don't have courage to watch it

[@faithluv1140]

@@LucasOliveira-tt2llI’m not sure if I’m glad I watched or not yet…. It’s been a week and my KZbin history is quite disturbing lol don’t watch it alone if u do lol

[@ARedMagicMarker]

Ah, yes. The synthesizer that still haunts some folks to this day. Yup, whoever made it *really* knew how to get your attention. Bravo to them, whoever it was. I'm seriously considering using it for a burglar alarm and set extremely loud. That'll send em' running for sure.

[@nickythehickey]

apparently the person who made that jingle later went on to compose for doctor who

[@vincentwhitehead]

@@nickythehickey wait what??!

[@lrayzRBLX]

Playing warning sirens is illegal if there is not actually an emergency, so if people believe it, you can get a big fine and be arrested

[@ARedMagicMarker]

@@lrayzRBLX I'll play the jingle, not the warning/attack sound. 😑

[@sawbonesquad4876]

*jingle plays* "if anyone dies while you are in your fallout room..."

[@blackboardplans]

The book and movie, When the Wind Blows, was made in direct response to how useless the Protect and Survive help is. It's worth a read or watch, and perfectly captures the aesthetic of these videos, using animated characters over miniature sets.

[@borntoclimb7116]

So true

[@portalfan0438]

i love how this is sent from someone with an f# a# infinity pfp lol. goated album!

[@maximillianlylat1589]

That movie traumatized me hard. But its a fantastic movie showing how truely scary nuclear war really was

[@Edgel-in6bs]

One of the best books of all time. The sad state of affairs for most nuclear fiction (WTWB, threads, the day after) is despite being incredibly bleak, they arguably underplay what would happen.

[@paulorocky]

Exactly. It’d be more practical to tell people to get piss drunk, pass out and await the next life.

[@melasnexperience]

I'm not British, so my only reference to Protect & Survive was a joke on the Young Ones where it ends with Neil painting himself & his clothes white while he's reading the pamphlet. These videos are nightmarish, not just the trappings of them but also the sense that the people making them probably knew that these were largely placebos to make people feel like they were doing something worthwhile to protect themselves.

[@electragaming4140]

I think the generally accepted scenario, which featured in both “Threads” and “The Day After”, was the first weapon used would be a high yield one, exploded high in the atmosphere, to create an EMP that would knock out communications; rather than going straight into dropping bombs on tactical or strategic targets.

[@AnonymousCaveman]

Normally before nuclear war, there would be a build up of serious tensions so these videos would be sent to the public and broadcasted out weeks or days before an attack.

[@mistie710]

As I recall, these were made assuming a similar power of detonation to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs and did not consider the use of multiple warheads and multi-megaton bombs that were frighteningly developing in the 70s onwards. Also they keep mentioning listening to the radio, ignoring the fact that nearly all radios would be disabled by EMP waves coming from ground zero, always assuming that the people, the radios, the fallout rooms and so forth survived the heat blast and the shock wave.

[@heathercameron1485]

Honestly, I'm pretty sure this is just a propaganda piece to keep up morale or to make it look like the government will protect you in a nuclear war if you simply follow the instructions. By the time people realise that help will never come and survivors are completely on their own, it'll be too late anyway.

[@robwatts9437]

Being a British army brat in the 70s the British school run by the British military in West Germany we also did duck and cover exercises I didn't duck and cover when asked by a teacher why , my reply was well sir or miss depending on the teacher , there's a army base a few feet from us if a nuclear bomb did explode we would be vaporised to nothing we wouldn't survive.

[@homerthompson416]

Nah that can't be true since they talk about H-bombs which have been around since the 50s and which are way bigger than the bombs dropped on Japan. Hell the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba was exploded in 1961. Also the EMP wouldn't be coming from ground zero, as it wouldn't have much effect from an airburst a couple thousand feet above or from a ground burst. You'd detonate a separate warhead 100,000 to 200,000 feet above ground for the EMP to take out communication and electric grids in a wide area. Eg like the bright flash you see overhead in Threads when the first missile exploded over the North Sea.

[@xdashlydia]

The nihilistic "why prepare, we'll all be vaporised instantly anyway" attitude, which was common in the '80s among those who thought themselves hip and edgy, disregarded two facts: the survival advice *was* written with A-bombs in mind, and *not everyone will be at Ground Zero* even for an H-Bomb explosion.

[@fanasful]

@@xdashlydia This. Another thing is that in PSAs like these you can't just say "You're outside? Well you're fucked, good luck". And chances are there is someone far enough away who might survive such a situation if they at least try to protect themselves. It's not about saving everyone but as many as possible.

[@stevenburns5124]

Oh yes, a little Protect & Survive. Don't worry if theres a bomb, take your doors off and make a inner refuge. What could possibly go wrong.....apart from those missing doors letting in the additional radiation & fallout! If it happens now, I'm getting near a expected epicenter and kissing my butt goodbye, no desire to extend the suffering of the inevitable.

[@notjebbutstillakerbal]

It's best to block the gaps made by the removed doors, and to not remove the door leading to your shelter.

[@jerrycoob4750]

What if you took out the doors from different rooms than the inner refuge?

[@mowilderness8505]

It's always better to try to survive

[@HJ-ju4ui]

I think the authorities knew these were ludicrous but their main purpose was to provide some sense of safety and give the people at least something to try to survive because, no matter how much people joke around about just putting a law chair outside our human nature is to try to survive no matter how bleak the circumstance that's just how we are

[@SBPau2024]

UK Gov: we need to calm people and make them learn how to survive a nuke. Some producer: let's make a faceless family and a creepy soundtrack! UK Gov: take my bloody money!

[@skellertons113]

The narrator is the great Patrick Allen, an actor, from South Africa. Known in as "Crane", and "Brett" in Britain. The voice of Currie Motors, "Nice people to to do business with",. Many modern advertisement narrators actually impersonate him, what a tribute to the great man

[@peterosullivan4764]

For some reason, I imagine Ennard from FNAF: SL narrating these. (Ennard proceeds to narrate them.)

[@peterosullivan4764]

And also, I imagine him doing the sounds from the videos.

[@long_dennis]

1:05 the sound that plays when the words circle around the people make me think of that Caddicarus clip when he pops out of the bin and goes “Hi, I’m Compost”

[@k1zm3t]

CADDICARUS MENTIONED‼️‼️‼️

[@BenPanced]

Oh, yes. Just the sort of light viewing one needs before dozing off for the night.

[@XmorganlamiaX]

I've been interested in the Protect & Survive videos since I discovered them a couple of years ago on YT. Not sure why really. I guess I find their mixture of trying to be frank but also trying to not create panic kind of fascinating. Deliciously retro too. That little music jingle though... No matter how many times I watch it, it still creeps me out, lol. The opinion on their effectiveness seems to be pretty mixed. Some of the advice is sound, others bits are not, and some vary. - Things like sitting under a bridge or lying down with your face covered of course won't be effective within a certain radius when it comes to radiation & fallout, but it could help protect you from flying debris and the instant burns the flash can inflict. - Some other parts of the advice? It's busy work. Something to distract you, give you something to concentrate on doing so you have less time to panic, and to give you some hope that you'll survive. Regardless of how close you are to the blast, that's mentally effective, although not physically if you're close enough... Some things will be effective the further away you are from the blast but obviously some things won't do anything. - Other bits of advice are only helpful if you live in a certain situation. What if you can't source everything you need depending on the area you live? Everyone else will be trying to do the same thing too, so there will be shortages. If you live in a small house, bungalow or flat then you have no space to store things, take in others or build your door/mattress/bag fort inside a room far from the walls. - Of course some parts of it are also just down to lack of research and scientific understanding at the time. The research used for the films and booklet was from the 60s, so the knowledge then wasn't anywhere near like what we have today. Ultimately, only the booklet was officially distributed to the public. These films were planned to only be broadcast on TV if an attack was likely within 72 hours (gives you time to paint your windows!), although some clips were used on programmes like Panorama, and some copies managed to leak out in various ways and make the rounds, giving them some attention. The mystery of the "classified-by-government" films enhanced the public's curiosity too. Apparently all of the films are currently shown on a loop at the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker in Cheshire, and at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester.

[@DVDandFilmBloke]

I can confirm that the films are shown on loop in the Manchester Imperial War Museum (in fact that is where I first discovered them). I believe other then the clips shown in Panorama and in the TV movie Threads the Protect and Survive films were classified until at least the early 2000s. They can now be viewed at the National Archive's website and are even included as an extra on the Blu Ray release of When the Wind Blows.

[@Dannypuck]

Glad to see you're an Oddity Archive fan. Ben definitely does great work. He needs more subs.

[@goodiesguy]

Oddity Archive is good in small doses. His problem is that he tries to be 'funny' instead of just being interesting and informative.

[@Jac-Man]

3:57 *lid flips open* Caddicarus: Hi, I’m Compost!

[@madabbafan]

As a teacher I was asked by a pupil where the best place to be if there was a nuclear missile hit, my answer of 'next to it, it's quicker' didn't go down well, even if it is true. In the event of one I am of the opinion that the living would envy the dead.

[@TheGerkuman]

I mean, they knew people within the 5 mile radius were dead. This is for the people whose homes get hit by the blast and only slightly get damaged. The issue of course is that in a nuclear exchange there's going to be more than one bomb in an area. Edit: Also, it apparently takes 20 mins for fallout to get from the epicenter to outside the fire zone. Yeah, I'm not sure how they worked that out either

[@SkySpokes]

These videos are for psychological benefit, rather than any real practical benefit. They (gov) knew virtually everyone would be dead after the event. This was to quell the unrest before the event by making people believe something could be done....

[@patdbean]

@A Person remember even in the film threads , a 210mt attack most people survived the blast. Only about 11 were killed directly by the attack blast etc. Fallout is by far the worst thing danger.

[@patdbean]

@A Person quite possible not.

[@Edgeworthscravat]

I watched it with bravado that I had already seen most horror films. I was mistaken.

[@andersonrobotics5608]

@@patdbean you mean only 11 named characters? I think it says millions died in the blast in one of its text cards

[@hedgethesledge]

Damn you can really see where analogue horror comes from by watching this video

[@ridbensdale]

Great video. Who's for a Threads viewing party?

[@joannegray5138]

Sorry, I'm just off to hang myself before it's too late, lol.

[@ridbensdale]

@@joannegray5138 I'll put you down as a 'maybe' then?

[@stevenburns5124]

@@ridbensdale Put me down, I'll bring the Vodka & Sandbags for the inner refuge!

[@riceboy1701e]

I'm in!

[@ridbensdale]

This needs to happen.

[@Altoclarinets]

Some things that you seem to have misinterpreted here: #1. These were never actually shown on TV in the 70s. They were designed for use if tensions ever escalated to a point that UK authorities considered an attack to be imminent in a matter of weeks and thankfully this was never the case. This is also when the creation of a fallout room, stocking up on food and water, prepping the house to avoid fires, and so on was all meant to be done - neither on any random Tuesday nor during the panic of the four minutes' warning, but in those precious few days while global tensions are escalating but the bombs aren't falling YET. #2. While it's true that a lot of this advice would be essentially futile for anyone situated close to major targets, if you're further from the various ground zeroes a full scale nuclear attack would likely create, getting any kind of cover between you and the explosion could make a major difference. There are some stories from Hiroshima and Nagasaki about people further on the outskirts who managed to survive thanks to very rudimentary protection. (Whether one would actually WANT to continue living in a nuclear war-ravaged Britain is another question; Threads would be another good topic for this series IF you promise to actually do your research on the context and implications instead of just shooting from the hip) #3. The nuclear blast and the fallout are two different events. They can be considerably separate in time and space (thanks to the wind carrying the dust great distances before it is able to return to Earth) and the advice for avoiding each is conceptually separate - the advice for avoiding blast if you're caught outdoors is not *intended* to be employed against fallout, because the only safe shelter from fallout is physical separation (and if you were still alive after the blast, your first priority should be finding such shelter before a fallout warning comes.) The idea behind the fallout warnings being simpler and quieter is that after a nuclear blast, the giant mast-mounted sirens used to send the attack warnings and the systems to activate them may no longer exist; the fallout warning needed to be something which could be quickly improvised even e.g. on the remaining outskirts of a city whose center was flattened by the bomb or something like that. #4. I don't know what you mean by "advancements in nuclear technology". There hasn't really been a lot of that since the major test bans of the 20th century came into play; even those nations which are not party to the ban treaties are piggybacking off the existing science, not developing heretofore unheard-of classes of nuclear weapons that revolutionize the implications of a nuclear conflict the way the H bomb did in the 50s. Here in the US our systems still look very much the same as they did 45 or 50 years ago, down to the 8 inch floppies(!) necessary to initiate ICBM launches in many siloes. The rationale is that this older technology, being all very offline and generally low on computer infrastructure, is more difficult or even physically impossible to remotely hack, and thus more secure. It wouldn't surprise me if the Trident subs and other countries' nuclear systems are much the same. Hope this helps!!

[@TeamRockHit4]

Love the logo of the nuclear family

[@ste887]

"post nuclear more like" - the young ones: episode: bomb

[@thetransplanner]

I love that the music you chose for your segments is the tense music from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

[@loganmacgyver2625]

there was a belief that there is gonna be at least 2 weeks of warning before nuclrear war. thats why they were telling you to do all that things

[@notjebbutstillakerbal]

This would be broadcasted 72 hours before attack. It operated like this: 1. UK gets intel on possible nuclear exchange 2. Broadcast this series of PSAs on loop 72 hours before impact and print booklets 3. By the time the attack warning sounds, everyone's hopefully prepared 4. If fall-out is expected, sound the 3 beeps indicating fall-out 5. Everybody who's in range may survive.

[@maccanorton]

I think the advice is better than you think. If you are on the edge of the fall out area, even small actions can make a difference. In some parts of Japan, folks who hid behind trees were much less likely to get cancer than those who didn't.

[@sambda]

Of course. The procedures were given in order to *increase your probability* of survival, not guarantee it. The instructions given might well help people in grey-area situations. Contrary to the rather glib commentary on this video, the scientists in charge were not idiots. There were two chief thrusts to the advice given - minimise casualties at the time and those developing later symptoms; minimise massed panic and keep people optimistic. The same would apply today.

[@PelinalDidNothingWrong]

Protect and Survive gives me Analog Horror vibes. Feels like something straight out of Local 58

[@Rubycon99]

The sweets and biscuits are mostly just about giving you a little morale boost

[@Haybalemelonhead]

Especially these days, protect & survive it’s very eerie, especially the weird fallout noises

[@KAGdesignsDOTnet]

pmsl at "dont forget your tin opener!"

[@leeosborne3793]

Some great commentary there. I agree with pretty much all of it - the advice given here is full of holes, and it was highly unlikely to be helpful to most people. Apparently, a properly constructed fallout room built to these instructions would give enough protection for you to survive *if your house wasn't structurally damaged*, but about 90% of houses in the UK would suffer enough damage for radiation to enter. None of that is any good if you're in a blast zone, though. I'm only about five or six miles from an airport that would have been an extremely likely target, so my house would have been extremely badly damaged at the very least, or destroyed at worst. No way was I coming out of this in one piece!

[@k1zm3t]

they play these at the imperial war museum in salford, you can hear them all across the main room

[@harrygibson8083]

This is my favourite series on your channel keep up the good work. I just love scary videos probably because I am a horror movie enthusiast.

[@CherryTerrier]

I noticed you had full episodes of Through the Dragon's Eye and ended up seeing that the theme tune to that programme was also done by P&S's audio composer Roger Limb. Mind blown

[@crustysconsoles6240]

10:23 they did know, this was more made to keep the public at ease and stop panicking than for actual tips

[@homerthompson416]

I had no idea about this series and just the jingle at the end of each video sent a chill down my spine first hearing it in Threads.

[@CerealBox64]

Gotta love that shrill whizzing nuclear fallout makes... apparently.

[@Fr4ncM]

If I'm not mistaken, they show this after the original airing of "Threads"... So just imagine how those poor Brits felt back then.

[@neyoid]

This was never broadcasted. This was intended to be broadcasted if attack was expected within 72 hours.

[@Fr4ncM]

@@neyoid You're correct, what was aired before "Threads" was an episode of "Panorama" which featured some bits of the PIF. My mistake.

[@3rdalbum]

Some thoughts: 1. The videos don't tell you that mains water supply will likely be cut. When you consider this, the idea of keeping a garden hose for firefighting is ludicrous. 2. No mention of keeping your shoes on, so you can make your way out of the shelter without cutting your feet on debris? 3. Conserve your radio's battery power - they should have suggested listening on the hour only. That is, if radio stations survive the attack - they might not, but even if they do, the command posts that send the emergency messages to the radio stations would probably be wiped off the face of the earth. 4. If the idea was to show these videos only three days before an expected attack, imagine the panic buying. It would make 2020 look like child's play. 5. The Casualties section is deficient to the point of murder. Many Japanese victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki died because the flash instantly dried out their tissues and well-meaning Samaritans let them chug plain water. This rapid rehydration diluted their low electrolyte stocks and caused water to rush into their cells, swelling them, particularly in the brain. This video should have explained how to properly give water to flash victims. As I understand it, you give them water slowly, and mix it with something slightly salty and sweet (a little fruit juice mixed with water?) to avoid the problem. As I say, we already knew this before Hiroshima and we certainly knew this afterwards. Not to tell the public was simply condemning people to death.

[@alexgreenwood404]

Regarding the segment on clearing detritus and clutter/painting the windows. This was to be done before a potential attack. The shorts were to be shown on a loop on TV at least 3 days before a potential nuclear attack. So gruesome, the last thing people would expected to do in their last few days would be to paint windows and spring clean the attic

[@givemethevalium]

Thoughtful and well put-together video. Weirdly it made me feel surprisingly positive about the overwhelmingly less serious ‘plight’ we find ourselves in, in 2019

[@RT-qd8yl]

Still feel that way in 2023? 🙃

[@impermanence4300]

​@@RT-qd8ylI was just about to say the same! Covid, economic collapse, Russia-Ukraine war, climate change. At least nuclear war has tbe decency to kill you off quickly!

[@nathanforester5993]

I've got an ad which should be mentioned in Video Scaries and that's the SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) PSA.

[@datprawn4850]

The Late Raymond Briggs criticized all this in his book "When The Wind Blows".

[@mowilderness8505]

The cake will be burned

[@OriginalEntitySourced]

I recently watched the entire "series" of these videos elsewhere on KZbin and it's actually quite surprising how sparse the information is let alone how impractical it is like Adam says when it gets to the food and water section did they think this was actually gonna help people I suppose it's better than nothing but even still it's incredibly scary that this was supposed to help people kind of reminds me of the recent pandemic

[@heathercameron1485]

The thing is, if there's a heat blast so intense that it sets fire to your house, then no-one is surviving that anyway. Everything in the heat blast's path will be gone. Painting your windows is going to do eff all.

[@katiaromero7149]

To be honest, I watched these before I watched Threads (because I was watching a row of PIFS and PSAS) and they were scary for me. And when I watched the movie it was way worse. I live in Mexico, I'm sure we wouldn't get any advise or information before a nuclear attack. One day, we'll just see the mushroom and knew we're effed up. Somehow, I prefer this to happen. I'd never want to live in a world after a nuclear attack (a massive one).

[@loganmacgyver2625]

im so numb that i could watch protect and survive and threads with a straight face, and eat a full course meal through threads

[@adorkablegina230]

I ate some BBQ ribs when I watched it.

[@davidjr3658]

@@adorkablegina230 I ate a burrito and some chips while watching them.

[@jerrycoob4750]

@@adorkablegina230 How were they?

[@emilyrumshas2186]

i was never born during this time but the amount of heartache from the movie and this guide is immesurable. i would lose my shit if i heard such warnings and taking shelter in a refuge... i would be scared to death...

[@sp0nge1337]

A lot of this advice was meant to give people things to do other than panic and cause chaos in the weeks before the end of the world.

[@evorock]

I'm in the centre of Portsmouth, and as a grade A target I'd be vaporised, and so would my wife as would my home. So there would no point in doing anything. Also, every 6 months or so they test the nuclear war sirens even now, and it is bowel watering

[@viewsfromtherebelbase]

Watching this in 2024 & it's still relevant today.

[@adammclaughlin845]

The UK makes the scariest dramas, the scariest paranormal documentaries, the scariest films and the scariest survival manuals.

[@JAProductions494]

Those of you interested in this video should check out the film When the Wind Blows

[@thaismagalhaes5928]

Threads and The day after too.

[@mowilderness8505]

Come back you stupid b***h and get in the shelter

[@emilystone5868]

My god I remember being terrified of these. We also had to do a drill at school where we got under our table if the siren sounded. How we were not traumatized for life by these and other safety films I don't know!

[@rugbydazz2264]

I can't remember where but I heard it referred to as "neglect & die"

[@gp-1542]

In the cold war, the government and people didn’t like the feeling of being helpless and the aspect of being literally deleted so this was their result, to combat the sense of helplessness

[@smallredcow918]

The music at the end sounds like what you would've had for an old VHS logo then

[@themoxcast]

The British government assumed that political tensions would give a 3 week window in which to print and distribute the booklet along with daily broadcasts of these films and radio instructions. I'd love to see the current version of this.

[@themoxcast]

Hilariously, in 1980, the Home Office determined that it would take 4 weeks to print the booklet.

[@neyoid]

They would broadcast Protect And Survive if nuclear attack was expected within 72 hours.

[@EdgyNumber1]

The BBC National Attack Warning System, I believe, was shut off recently and had been developed in the 90's. Everyone denied its existence of course but I first found out about it in a Mark Thomas documentary show called 'Secret Map of Britain,' with a little clip explaining NAWS. Recently it became declassified as it was made redundant - and indeed, you can hear that recording on the BBC News website or here on KZbin. Along with that, there was a clip on the show on what to do to contact someone in a general emergency, where cell towers are given priority to emergency services (phone boxes have level 9 clearance so will still work when all other telephone lines are blocked - the London 7/7 incident was a good example of when this,) and to be prepared to evacuate a tube station if you hear a 'Mr Sands' announcement (basically a recorded PA warning to staff to investigate a _potential_ emergency.) Secret Map of Britain... kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2LNlGeiaNCnqbM

[@3rdalbum]

26:43 This is great advice during the Covid-19 pandemic too.

[@roadwolf2]

If you hear the attack sirens whilst out of doors. Kiss your ass goodbye

[@randomperson12735]

Anybody know where I can get that leaflet they were talking about? I fancy a bit of bedtime reading.

[@Runaboo_]

That synsizer just give this creepy feeling I’m not sure why it feels creepy and omunis

[@marcocasati6953]

Given the current events I'm watching all the episodes just in case 😳

[@tarrfarmer]

The attack sirens and all clear sirens sound like they were repurposed air-raid sirens used during WWII

[@sm64be]

I'd get an advantage in this situation. I'm not as hydrated as others. I take 1 pint a day. 😅

[@mowilderness8505]

Same here, I can survive off of very little water. It's not healthy but I can make it

[@chrishenniker5944]

This would be transferable to a conventional attack, or an industrial accident, for that matter. If there's an artillery barrage on a coastal town, this could work quite well.

[@theewildrose]

The thing is there is no defending from a direct blast this is for people outside of the main blast

[@YorkshireTeaNiceNStrong]

Because of growing up on this type of public information (including 'duck and cover' practices at school, because my desk would apparently repel nuclear attack), I find preppers to be baffling. Why on Earth would anyone want to spend the rest of their lives underground with their annoying families, eating canned and dehydrated food and reminiscing about natural daylight, plants, animals, food, clean water and social gatherings? They'd probably just end up with radiation poisoning and die slowly and painfully anyway. Nope, if the world loses its last shred of sanity, I'm checking out on my terms.

[@robwatts9437]

Thing is there would be no all clear watch threads

[@maxineamelia7549]

Also.. How am I supposed to put out a fire caused by the blast when I'm not supposed to leave my inner refuge? Did people have longer arms in the 70s or what?

[@judet5426]

😂 don't think so (mine were still growing!)

[@impermanence4300]

IIRC the British government knew we were fuckedin tbe event of a nuclear war. I mean, we're a tiny island. Like 2 or 3 tsar bomba level blasts would level the country. These films were just a placebo meant to manage panic.

[@thedeadstig123]

To you saying when are we meant to be painting our windows white, this video was meant to be put on tv on a 24hr loop if the UK was threatened with attack, the 1984 film "threads" shows it pretty well but briefly

[@robertwilloughby8050]

Time for the horror of - The 1968 to 1970 Harlech ident!

[@patdbean]

Please do not be silly, there would be a period of tension and conventional war before a nuclear exchange. They esemated about 2 to 3 weeks.

[@catmandoodoo7903]

You should watch the film Threads 😬. Imho the Protect and Survive project was done simply because the government had to be seen to be doing something in order to reduce panic at the point of crisis. That’s when the films were due to be shown. I’m not sure it would have worked.

[@Utonian21]

While some of the suggestions within "Protect and Survive" may be flawed, I think the intention was just to give people a general idea of what to do. For example, I think they purposely didn't account for your house being destroyed while talking about "inner refuges", because if you're that close to the blast radius, you're mostly likely dead, so the information doesn't really apply to you

[@arthurvasey]

Luckily, these have never yet been shown - although, given what is happening in Ukraine at the moment, they might - luckily for the VO actor, Patrick Allen, he’s now deceased! A simpler solution - encase the UK in a huge, bomb-proof geodesic dome - that way, we can still go about our normal life - watch telly, play music, go swimming, play in the park, whatever - the materials in the dome are completely bomb-proof and fallout-proof!

[@WarrenCromartie2]

This civil defence initiative is not active anymore. In fact, there is no longer an active civil defence programme worth speaking of. I actually submitted a FOI request to the MOD about 3 months ago, asking for details of any government plans for civil defence in the event of war. They replied a month later saying they were 'unable to source any relevant information in response to my request' or words to that effect... I was a teenager in the 80's and remember the constant references to nuclear weapons and the threat of war, on the news, in documentaries and even TV drama. Government ministers were frequently questioned as to why we didn't have a serious civil defence programme, and they were quite candid in their response. It would be too expensive to provide shelters for every household in the country, and that cost had to be weighed up against the actual probability of nuclear war, which despite the 'scaremongering' was broadly deemed to be low. The cost of the civil defence programme at the time (Protect & Survive etc) worked out about 50p per head of population. In reality, Protect & Survive would have been moderately effective in areas more than 9 miles or so from targets, but overall very few people would survive in cities or areas close to targets. It was believed there was around 160 targets in the UK, and in an all out attack more than one weapon would likely have been assigned to each target, in the expectation that some would fail to detonate. Surviving an attack would have brought problems for the survivors and the authorities trying to feed and shelter them, and the grim reality was that the more people who died, the better; in terms of providing for those who were left. I suspect this is why there is no programme any more, and essentially we are on our own, AND living in an age where nuclear war is actually more likely than it was at the height of the cold war. Sleep on that ;-)

[@foxee36]

It wasn’t shown until 1980,this was an edited version of the unbroadcast 70’s one

[@judet5426]

P&S got leaked by the press in the early 80's, appeared in a documentary about nuclear war and was also used in "Threads".

[@paulanderson7796]

11:57 - my parents had exactly the same fire grate as seen here.

[@panda-wk8mv]

when the wind blows is an exelent film that ripps these films (and associated advice leaflets) a new one! realy depressing film from the same man who did the snowman (although that also was depressing, and he also wrote ethel and ernest... which was depressing... was raymond briggs alright?)

[@Pauldjreadman]

One thing about these videos is the music. I just realised that with the snap tune at half speed.

[@tomfletchervideos]

The warning and all clear sounds sound remarkably similar, it brings to mind the fire bell scene on Fawlty Towers. Lets just hope the wavy red and green lines are visible enough for people to see in all the panic.

[@sophiecearnaigh4850]

These films were not routinely shown. It wasn't like Coronation St. finished and this came on. The films were classified, intended for transmission on all television channels if the government determined that nuclear attack was likely within 72 hours and obviously you'd do all that preparation in that time. No one was expected to paint their windows white in regular life!

[@mrs-chief]

Something you get wrong about civil defense initiatives is that they were never meant to seriously keep people alive--they knew that a lean-to made of doors and bags was not seriously enough. But it was about getting people to take their safety into their own hands. This is something we experience still today in modern emergency management--too many people are complacent, and will sit and wait for first responders. But first responders will be sheltering themselves and stretched VERY thin. Civil defense was never about surviving, it was about getting people to take up the responsibility and take part of the burden off first responders.

[@Ian-xq4rt]

I don't believe these were ever broadcasted so most would not have seen these warnings. They were prepared just in case, thankfully we're here so we know it didn't happen. Most people recognised this from the film Threads. Whilst still some useful information, the size of explosions today are far greater and none of these talk about the nuclear winter that is likely to follow, as this wasn't fully understood at the time but widely recognised today as the likely outcome. Based on modern information, the lucky ones would die straight away, only the poor buggers who survive will witness the end of mankind.

[@PaulFisher]

“a time where the threat of nuclear war was a serious prospect” haha imagine worrying about nuclear war am I right

[@johnfkennedy3495]

They mostly used the “put doors against the wall” was mostly to keep people calm, the government knew it wouldn’t do anything it just gave the public peace of mind

[@lore002]

Good to see you’re doing well jfk

[@johnfkennedy3495]

@@lore002 yeah I had to revive myself for this

[@louiseogden1296]

Biscuits etc -- were they not for carbs and energy in very concentrated forms?

[@scrambled5948]

This kind of reminds me of when the wind blows

[@dearone1]

I wasn't even born during the 80s nuclear stuff, but When the Wind Blows scares the shit out of me. I cry every single time I watch it.

[@neyoid]

@@dearone1 Hilda and James didn't deserve all that.

[@EddieGaster]

Don't forget the BBC docudrama Threads which came out in 1984.

[@j0hnf_uk]

I think this was more to give people something to do rather than actually help to survive in the event of a nuclear attack. Things like closing your windows and drawing the curtains, for example, aren't going to do anything to help against a 10 megaton blast.

[@elizabethfrohn-hengst296]

@Steven Universe not necessarily, even if there was a 10 megaton blast there would still be people far enough away where the only major immediate concern is fallout all of these steps would help against that. If you were in one of the more likely to get hit areas then it kinda was but these actions would've saved people's lives further away from the blast

[@TheUplinkExperiment]

yeah this wasnt exactly made with saving the people at ground zero in mind mate, those little things help when you arent in the literal fireball

[@sandracheeks1811]

The 3rd video says to start now on your outer AND inner refuge. Does that mean that everyone is supposed to build a lean-to with doors, wood and bags, or line their stairs with bags and mattresses, and just leave it up indefinitely just in case a bomb might go off some day? That’s not a practical plan.

[@SuperNeontrix]

From what I gather films were only intended for broadcast if there was a imminent threat of a nuclear strike.

[@sandracheeks1811]

SuperNeontrix in that case, it’s a little late to build the outer and inner refuges described in the film. It doesn’t make sense either way.

[@neyoid]

@@sandracheeks1811 72 hours is enough to make a inner refuge in your house.

[@sandracheeks1811]

Moistifier Yes, but if you don’t already have that refuge built, you are not going to be alerted 72 hrs before the strike to prepare...more like 20 minutes. So are you going to just have mattresses, wood and bags set up in your house all the time, just in case??

[@n2n8sda]

@@sandracheeks1811 no in the cold war days especially.. if relations broke down so bad resonable estimates were 72 hours upto a couple of weeks before an attack.. plenty of time to get things ready.

[@Thelavenderghost]

Just imagined these in a fallout game set in the 70s. That would be awesome.

[@shakcmusic]

Watching this in March 2022...

[@yotetoob]

The video's OP would not have survived a nuclear attack, beyond dense.

[@incredibleflameboy]

I think they knew what they were doing telling people to climb into ditches or under bridges. The death toll would be much too high for survivors to deal with and all of those bodies laying about would lead to disease (although I'm not 100% how quickly decomposition would take considering the gamma and neutron radiation banging about) so what makes that easier? Bodies that won't be seen or found for probably 2 or 3 generations who will likely have grown up in a world that's full of death and would be desensitised to it. Any survivors are going to need a lot of medical help and by having them buried means they aren't coming but you can comfort yourself by knowing that you wouldn't know either way if there were people to help at all. As for getting people that died out of your fallout shelter, I think cannibalism would likely be more common than they considered. I know I wouldn't leave a source of food go to waste given the circumstances.

[@wookiedog]

I was 7 years old living in the U.K in 1981. I remember these scaring the shit out of me.

[@joannegray5138]

I was about the same age. It still makes me feel cold and nauseous now 😓

[@stevetaylor8698]

They were never shown. You are probably confusing them with episodes of Blake's 7.

[@wookiedog]

@@stevetaylor8698 lol. You might be right. But i do remember the lurking threat that mum and dad never really spoke about. And im SURE the handbook was in our house.

[@stevenburns5124]

@@wookiedog I'm a little younger, born in 84, hadn't seen Protect and Survive until I was in college doing a project in 2001, studying this the day after 9/11....that was uncomfortable.